Cedars-Sinai laying off more than 100 employees
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is laying off more than 100 employees in a move that the hospital said was needed to reduce costs as it faces “a challenging financial environment.”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-05/cedars-sinai-laying-off-more-than-100-employees
Cedars-Sinai laying off more than 100 employees
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is laying off more than 100 employees in a move that the hospital said was needed to reduce costs as it faces “a challenging financial environment.”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-05/cedars-sinai-laying-off-more-than-100-employees
Yankees hope cortisone shot will speed up Carlos Rodon’s recovery
Rodon has not thrown the last two days and will not throw for an unspecified amount of time after receiving the injection, but the hope is that he can start building back up after that.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/05/yankees-hope-cortisone-shot-will-speed-up-carlos-rodon-recovery/
How LI’s Aljamain Sterling overcame a harsh life to be a UFC champ
The fighter talked to The Post about his journey from a “broken home” to becoming a superstar in the combat sport.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/05/how-aljamain-sterling-overcame-a-harsh-life-to-be-a-ufc-champ/
Billionaire Buys Jeffery Epstein’s Islands, Paving Way For “Five-Star Resort”
Billionaire Buys Jeffery Epstein’s Islands, Paving Way For “Five-Star Resort”
Billionaire investor Stephen Deckoff purchased two Caribbean islands previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier accused of sex trafficking. Deckoff has plans to transform one of the islands, known by some as “Pedophile Island,” into a world-class resort.
On Wednesday, Deckoff, under his firm SD Investments, announced the acquisition of the Great St. James and Little St. James islands for $60 million, or less than half of their initial asking price.
Court filings have revealed Epstein used one of the islands to sexually abuse young girls for years. The billionaire wants to purge the island of evil for a new “state-of-the-art, five-star, world-class luxury 25-room resort.”
“Mr. Deckoff plans to develop a state-of-the-art, five-star, world-class luxury 25-room resort that will help bolster tourism, create jobs, and spur economic development in the region, while respecting and preserving the important environment of the islands,” a press release from the investment firm read.
AP News reported funds from the island sale would go towards the $105 million sex trafficking lawsuit against Epstein’s estate, which the US Virgin Islands government settled. SD Investments didn’t reveal how much it would invest in the new resort.
Whether or not high net-worth folks will visit the island is a big gamble for Deckoff…
If the new resort ever gets built, some of Epstein’s guests who visited the island over the years, such as Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, probably won’t return.
There’s no word if Deckoff will keep Epstein’s mysterious temple structure.
The purchase was reported on the same day that CNBC revealed JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon would be deposed in late May over civil lawsuits accusing the megabank of benefiting from Epstein’s sex trafficking operations.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/05/2023 – 18:00
Heat ‘warrior’ Jimmy Butler trending toward Game 3 return
The Heat officially listed Butler as questionable on Friday afternoon’s injury report. But with Butler, reports mean little.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/05/jimmy-butler-trending-toward-game-3-return-for-heat/
Texas officials tackle oil refinery fire as heavy black smoke blankets sky
A fire at a Texas oil refinery continues to burn Friday afternoon in Deer Park.
The fire reported erupted just before 3 p.m. at the small crude distillation unit of a Shell Deer Park plant, according to FOX 26 Houston.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted he received “preliminary reports of some sort of explosion at an industrial plant” near Beltway 8 and Texas State Highway 225.
“The incident is being handled within the boundaries of this facility and there is no threat to the community from this incident,” a Shell Deer Park environmental duty representative said in statement to FOX 26.
TEXAS POLICE ID WOMAN AS BABY ABDUCTED OVER 50 YEARS AGO
At least six people have been injured. The extent of their injuries is unknown, but officials say all personnel at the plant had been accounted for by 4 p.m.
Aerial pictures show flames shooting from the facility’s smokestacks and huge billows of black smoke.
Deer Park International School District and Office of Emergency Management officials said there was no shelter-in-place order due to wind blowing in the opposite direction of Deer Park.
ALASKA VOLCANO DORMANT FOR A CENTURY DELIVERING OMINOUS WARNING SIGNS: ‘SIGNIFICANT UNREST’
The National Weather Service reported that the fire was visible on its radar.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office for more information.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-officials-tackle-pemex-oil-refinery-fire-black-smoke-blankets-sky
Daily Crunch: New AI model DeepFloyd IF offers ‘advanced text-to-image generation techniques’
Just as a rising tide lifts all boats, a sustained drought is an exercise in humility for yacht owners and kayakers alike.
According to Carta, “the number of down rounds had nearly quadrupled in Q1 2023 compared to the same time last year,” writes Rebecca Szkutak.
With valuations falling, founders who accept down rounds no longer have the taint of failure, said Russ Wilcox, a partner at Pillar VC.
“When you set a $700 million valuation, it looks like you’re winning somehow and you’re not being diluted, but actually, you just raised the bar so high,” he said.
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Fri-Yay! If you’ve got some time on your hands today, get your Disrupt tickets — early-bird savings end in 7 days!
Also, it seems a little daft to pick a fight against plant-based milks, but this advertisement by newly minted CEO Aubrey Plaza (yes, that Aubrey Plaza) at Wood Milk is delightfully bizarre and confusing. It makes for some great end-of-week wait-what-did-I-just-watch silliness.
The TechCrunch Top 3
- The ABCs of AIKyle reports about how, with DeepFloyd, artificial intelligence finally learns to draw text on images. He writes, “Trained on a dataset of more than a billion images and text, DeepFloyd IF, which requires a GPU with at least 16GB of RAM to run, can create an image from a prompt like ‘a teddy bear wearing a shirt that reads Deep Floyd’ — optionally in a range of styles.”
- It’ll cost you a quarter: You all were very interested in the 20 new games that Apple introduced to Apple Arcade. Ivan has more.
- Fewer glitchesLauren spoke with Warner Bros. Discovery’s CTO and CPO to get the scoop on how they made Max less buggy. She also writes about how its streaming business is set to become profitable in 2023.
Startups and VC
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been over a year since Elon Musk announced his bid to buy Twitter, and those who opposed the sale have tried setting up shop on platforms like Mastodon, Substack Notes, T2…but none of these Twitter alternatives have really captured lightning in a bottle like Bluesky. Amanda and Alyssa break down the highlights for everything you need to know about Bluesky.
Mary Ann reports that Peter Ackerson has departed from his role as general partner at fintech-focused venture firm Fin Capital and started a new firm, Audere Capital, with the rather vague thesis of “championing American innovation through early-stage technology investment.”
And we have a few more for you to kick off the weekend:
- Slightly less social commerce: India’s Meesho cuts 251 jobs, reports Manish.
- From $1 billion valuation to an 80% reduction of headcountMary Ann reports that RapidAPI headcount is down 82% from fresh layoffs, less than two weeks after cutting 50% of staff.
- Handle your own damn supply chainCatherine reports that Praktis lands $20 million to help Indonesian D2C brands handle their supply chains.
- Things’ll get better soon. Maybe.Connie reports that In Europe, Accel banks on a turnaround over the next six to nine months.
- A testbed for fresh software: After bootstrapping for five years, Instruqt raises a €15M Series A from Blossom Capital, reports Mike.
- New Kenyan neobank: Kenya’s Fingo partners with Ecobank, launches neobank on the back of $4M investment, reports Tage.
Down rounds are a ‘ticket to try again,’ says founder who raised 3 in a row
Image Credits: Getty Images
Just as a rising tide lifts all boats, a sustained drought is an exercise in humility for yacht owners and kayakers alike.
According to Carta, “the number of down rounds had nearly quadrupled in Q1 2023 compared to the same time last year,” writes Rebecca Szkutak.
With valuations falling, founders who accept down rounds no longer have the taint of failure, said Russ Wilcox, a partner at Pillar VC.
“When you set a $700 million valuation, it looks like you’re winning somehow and you’re not being diluted, but actually, you just raised the bar so high,” he said.
Three more from the TC+ team:
- Do my homework, ChatGPT: OpenAI’s ChatGPT is shaking up the edtech markets, by Alex and Natasha M.
- To da moon: Investors cheer as Coinbase beats Q1 expectations, by Alex.
- To da pub: Tepid investor reaction clouds Lyft’s new strategy, by Alex and Anna.
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
Carly took an interesting call this week with an anonymous security researcher who found a trove of data exposed online that belonged to London-based outsourcing giant Capita. We’re talking over 3,000 files that included software files, server images, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and text files. We’re going to leave the good stuff for you to read but will note you should check out how long those files were supposedly out there exposed “on the line.”
If you’re into earnings, here are some:
- Lyft shares tumble as investors react to dim outlook, by Rebecca and Kirsten
- iPhone sales help Apple beat revenue forecasts for Q2, by Brian.
- Paytm tops $977 million revenue in a year, narrows loss, by Manish.
And now here’s four more:
- Poppin’ bottles: Samsung surpasses Apple in smartphone shipments by 1%, and that was amid persisting market decline, Ivan reports.
- Read my lips…Crypto and influencers are targeted in Kenya’s new tax bid, writes Annie.
- Shop ’til you dropAmazon’s TikTok-like Inspire shopping feed is now available to all customers in the U.S. Aisha has more.
- “A place where no one has been before”: That’s what internet pioneer Vint Cerf had to say about the “exhilarating mix” of thrill and hazard at the frontiers of tech, writes Devin.
Daily Crunch: New AI model DeepFloyd IF offers ‘advanced text-to-image generation techniques’ by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch
Trump calls E. Jean Carroll rape allegations ‘disgusting,’ mixes up her photo as ex-wife
A video deposition of former President Donald Trump has been released in E. Jean Carroll’s ongoing civil rape trial against him.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/05/trump-video-deposition-released-in-e-jean-carrolls-civil-rape-case/
Texas chemical plant catches fire, spews massive amount of smoke in sky
A chemical plant in the Houston area caught fire Friday, sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky.